Honor has launched the Play20C, a budget phone with a second screen on its back. The screen is a 2.01-inch touchscreen next to the camera. Nigeria got the phone launch first, on 2nd October 2026. It starts at NGN 149,900, or about KES 14,600 for 4GB RAM, 64GB Storage.
Honor has also put the Play20C on its global website, but it hasn’t said which other countries get it, or when.
What the rear screen is for
The Play20C’s main camera, on the back, is 13MP. The selfie camera on the front is 5MP. Normally you can’t use the better camera for selfies, because it faces away from you and you can’t see what you’re shooting.
The rear screen fixes that. Turn the phone around and the small screen shows a live preview from the main camera, so it works as a mirror. You tap the rear screen to focus and press volume down to take the picture. Honor’s product page also lists manual zoom and a beauty mode on that screen. So if you take a lot of selfies, you get them from the 13MP camera instead of the 5MP one.
When you’re not taking pictures, the rear screen shows a clock or a wallpaper you choose. Calls come up there too, and you can answer from it. So do text messages and notifications from other apps, and there are music controls, so you can pause a song without turning the phone over.
Xiaomi built this mechanism first. It made a rear screen a flagship feature with its Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max last year, and the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. Honor is doing the opposite and putting displays on its cheapest phones. The Play 20A got a 2-inch rear screen in August. The X5d s is on sale in South Africa. That’s three entry-level Honor phones with a rear screen since August. Phones at this price tend to look alike, so a screen on the back gives a shopper something different to notice on the shelf.
The X5d s with a different camera
The Play20C and the X5d s are the same phone on the outside. Honor’s spec pages give them the same size, weight, both screens, battery and charging. The difference is the main camera. The X5d s has a 50MP camera, and the Play20C’s spec sheet lists 13MP. If you’ve seen the Play20C advertised with a 50MP camera, that’s the X5d s figure. The back has two camera rings, but Honor gives specs for only one rear camera.
The chip changes with the storage.
- The 3GB and 32GB version and the 4GB and 64GB version use Unisoc’s T610.
- The 4GB and 128GB version uses the T615, which swaps the Mali-G52 graphics chip for a newer Mali-G57.
That means two phones sold under the same name can have different chips, so check the version on the box.
The main screen is a 6.78-inch LCD with a resolution of 720 by 1576 and a 90Hz refresh rate. The battery is 6,000mAh, and it charges at 15W. Honor lists a 15W charger in the box, though it says that depends on the market. That’s slow for a battery this big, and Honor gives no charging time.
The Play20C runs Android 16 (Go edition). That’s a lighter version of Android that Google built for cheap phones with little memory. The phone is rated IP52. It’s protected against dust and dripping water, but it isn’t meant to get soaked.
How it compares: Play 20C v Play20 A v Play 10
Honor already sells the Play 10 in Kenya, and the Play20A is the Play20C’s closest sibling.
| Honor Play20C | Honor Play20A | Honor Play 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main screen | 6.78-inch LCD, 720 x 1576, 90Hz | 6.9-inch LCD, 720 x 1600 | 6.74-inch LCD, 720 x 1600 |
| Rear screen | 2.01-inch, 240 x 296 | 2-inch, 240 x 296 | None |
| Chip | Unisoc T610 (T615 on 4GB/128GB) | MediaTek Helio G81 | MediaTek Helio G81 |
| RAM and storage | 3GB/32GB, 4GB/64GB, 4GB/128GB | 3GB/32GB, 4GB/64GB, 4GB/128GB | 3GB/64GB |
| Main camera | 13MP | 13MP | 13MP |
| Selfie camera | 5MP | 5MP | 5MP |
| Battery | 6,000mAh | 6,000mAh | 5,000mAh |
| Charging | 15W | 15W | 10W |
| Software | Android 16 (Go edition) | Android 16 (Go edition) | Android 15 (Go edition) |
| Dust and water | IP52 | IP52 | IP52 |
| Weight | 214g | 206.5g | 189g |
| Price | From NGN 149,900 (about KES 14,600) in Nigeria | Not announced | About KES 12,500 at Avechi |
What Honor hasn’t said
- Honor hasn’t said how many years of Android or security updates the Play20C will get.
- The Nigerian launch gave only a starting price, so there’s no price yet for the 3GB and 32GB version or the 4GB and 128GB version.
- And company hasn’t announced the phone for Kenya.
Who the Play20C is for
Without the rear screen, the Play20C is close to the Play 10 on paper, with a different chip, a 6,000mAh battery instead of 5,000mAh, 15W charging instead of 10W, and Android 16 instead of 15. If it reaches Kenya at about the Nigerian price, it would cost about KES 2,000 more than the Play 10 at Avechi, which is a fair premium for the bigger battery and faster charging. The rear screen is the reason to pick it over the Play 10, because your selfies come from the 13MP camera instead of the 5MP one. If you’d rather have better water protection, Samsung’s Galaxy A08, which we covered last month, has the same size battery and an IP64 rating, but it went on sale in Malaysia at about KES 28,500, nearly twice as much. The Play20C is for someone who wants a big battery for as little money as possible and takes a lot of selfies.
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